AP Human Geography - Unit 1 Vocabulary

Abiotic

Non-living, without life

Chemical and physical parts of the environment

Absolute Direction

Relative to a fixed frame

Always pointing in the same direction regardless of their location

Accessibility

The degree of ease in which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations.

Acculturation

the adoption of a certain cultural and social characteristics of one society by another society.

Arithmetic Density

the total number of people divided by the total land area

AKA real density

Assimilation

the process of taking in/absorbing, and fully understanding information or ideas

Behavior Geography

the study on how people make decisions/behave in certain places and environments due to their perceptions or experiences.

Biosphere

the region of the earth that encompasses all living organism(plant, animals, and bacteria)

Biotic

Living components

Cartography

The practice of making visual representations of Earth´s surface in the form of maps.

Choropleth map

Maps with areas shaded/patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable.

Concentration

the extent of a feature's spread over space

Connectivity

The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Contagious Diffusion

it involves a form of expansion in which people near the point of origin become adopters of a cultural fad(fad = trend/craze).

Cultural Ecology

The study of the adaption of human societies or populations to their environment, especially the arrangements of technique, economy, and social organizations.

Density

The mass of the object compared to its volume

Dispersion

The action of distributing things or people over a wide area. In ecology, the pattern of distribution of individuals within a habitat

Distance Decay

A geographical term which describes the effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions.

Distance decay effect

States that the interaction between two locales declines as the distance between them increases.

Distortion

The alternation of the original shape(or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation.

Distribution

The way something is spread out or arranged over a geographic area. The arrangement of features in a space.

Environmental Determinism

the belief that the environment, specifically its physical factors such as climate, determines the patterns of human culture and societal development

Expansion Diffusion

when innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations.

Formal Region

Uniform or homogeneous areas where everyone in that region shares common attributes or traits like language, climate or political system.

Functional Region

An area organized around a central focal point or node.

Geographic Information System(GIS)

A computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface.

Global Positioning System(GPS)

Utilizes a satellite navigation system to provide location information anywhere on Earth. It is commonly used to determine an individual's exact location on Earth.

Grid

A network of imaginary lines, including latitude and longitude, that are used to locate and determine the absolute location of places on Earth's surface

Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate

Hierarchical Diffusion

When an idea spreads by passing first among the most connected individuals, then spreading to other individuals

Humanistic Geography

Emphasizes the different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings

International Date Line

Defines the boundary between calendar dates, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean, and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth.

Isoline Map

Maps that show lines that join points of equal value

Latitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator

Location

The position that something occupies on earth's surface.

Absolute Location

The geographical location of something given in coordinates.

Relative Location

The location of a place in relation to another.

Site

A physical character of a place, such as climate, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation.

Situation

the location of a place relative to other places.

Place name

A title given to a place on earth. Could be names after a person, founder, or famous person. Places names change.

Longitude

the angular measurement east and west of the Prime Meridian

Map

Symbolic representation of selected characteristics of a place, usually drawn on a flat surface. They present information about the world in a simple, visual way

Map Scale

The relationship between the size of an object or feature on a map and its actual size on the ground. Typically the relation is represented as a ratio.

Mental Map

A personal visualization of spatial information, or a map of information in one's own mind

Pattern

Shows how close different types of populations, phenomena, things, or objects are to one another

Physiological Density

The number of persons per unit of agricultural land. Gives us a rough estimate of how many people an area of farmland can reasonably support and is helpful when studying population pressure and overcrowding.

Possibilism

The concept that the natural environment places constraints on human activity, but humans can adapt to some environmental limits while modifying others using technology.

Post-Structural Geography

Studies how the powerful in society dominate, or try to control, less powerful groups, how the dominated groups take up space, and the consequences.

Prime Meridian

The line of 0° longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around Earth. It is arbitrary, meaning it could be chosen to be anywhere.

Relocation Diffusion

When people move/relocate, they spread ideas along with their move.

Remote Sensing

the process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites (or, earlier, airplanes) to provide a greater understanding of the Earth's geography over large distances.

Scale

the relationship of a feature's length on a map to its actual distance on Earth. Four ways: Fraction, ratio, written statement, or a graphic bar scale

Size

The physical dimensions of an object, region, or feature on Earth's surface.

Space-time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communications and transportation system

Spatial

How something is laid out; space on Earth's surface.

Stimulus Diffusion

When cultural ideas originating from a culture are adapted and changed by other cultures while maintaining the basic principles of the original idea

Vernacular Region

An area that people believe exist as part of their cultural identity. Emerge from one's informal sense of place rather than a scientific model.

Volunteered Geographic Information(VGI)

The use of digital tools to collect, analyze, and share geographic information that was provided by individuals.